ᴠɪᴅᴇᴏ | rats are people too

[sylphystia]

Who: Dezel and you
Broadcast: Yes
Action: The Golden
When: Now

[video]

[A group of ship vermin are all sitting in a circle, waiting patiently for... something. A bowl full of scraps appears and seems to float in the air before it sits down in front of them. The rats make cute happy little noises as they dig into the food.

... And then, the greatest evil comes.

The roomba.

One of the tiny maintenance robots comes screaming around the corner at high speed. DIRT DETECTED. [...] PESTS DETECTED. It heads straight for the the poor rats. They all scatter save for one really fat one, who's too focused on the food to notice what's coming.

But what's this-- the droid is scooped up by someone invisible! Dezel's voice might be familiar to some; it's the "don't sleep in my room" guy.]

Leave. The animals. Alone.

[A thin wire appears. With a hard jerk, he shreds the cleaning droid into pieces. Imagine if that had been someone's neck.]

It's all right. You can come out now. [And then the rats come scurrying out of their little holes again. A couple of them crawl over Dezel's invisible shoes, then go back for the food.]

Comments

[cephalon]

You know what!

[Real specific there Ordis.]

Let the filthy furry things die, but to lay a hand on a robot-

[sylphystia]

Filthy?

[Now Dezel's voice gets sharp, and there's the sound of leather being squeezed, though he's still invisible over the broadcast.]

These rats are cleaner than most people. They might feed on scraps, but they don't live in their own filth and they groom themselves for hours a day. They're intelligent and have unique personalities and dislikes, which is more than I can say about the insipid machine I just disposed of.

Also, rats take care of their sick. They laugh when they're having fun. If they don't have friends they become depressed. As far as I'm concerned, these 'filthy furry things' you know nothing about are more of an asset to this fleet than you are!

[cephalon]

They shed organic matter everywhere! Skittering skittering-chewing destroying- all about until there are shorts everywhere! They do not belong on crafts, they only cause damage, unlike the life you cruelly cut short.

[sylphystia]

That thing wasn't alive. [Also, he resents that bit about shedding organic matter everywhere.] The rats on my ship don't chew through wires unless they're bored. They have plenty of holes and things to occupy themselves.

Maybe if you got to know them, you'd understand.

[cephalon]

How dare you pull such biocentric drivel. It has a purpose, a will just as everything else. Just because it doesn't breathe or make filthy messes everywhere doesn't mean it's lesser than something that does.

I give you your words back: maybe if you got to know it better, you'd understand.

[sylphystia]

A will that someone else gave to it. It's not capable of making its own decisions, so how is it any different than an a weapon or a tool?

[He snorts.]

I don't know why you're so focused on this. I thought most people here were human. What are you supposed to be? A toaster?

[cephalon]

[Oh what a grave insult that is.]

Ordis is a cephalon, and Ordis highly resents the biological-centric idea that consciousness and will are solely limited to organic beings!

[sylphystia]

I didn't say that. [And just to throw things off:] I'm not organic, either. Not in the same way humans are. I don't eat or sleep or breathe.

Try again.